Authors Note: Yes, I realise Christmas was some time ago. Maybe by the time anyone reads this it will be Christmas 2006? On with the show…
Christmas in the Titan Tower is an important time for the teens, for Starfire it is still relatively new, Beast Boy is like a kid when it comes to presents and Cyborg gets to act like a child again. Even Robin enjoys the holiday, the other Titans consider Christmas to be equal to Robin's birthday. He doesn't allow anyone to know his real birthday for fear of giving away his secret identity. Raven, well Raven tries to enjoy herself but there is always going to be that part of her that keeps her emotions in check. That has to. But the Tower is a happy place at Christmas.
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Starfire entered the huge doors of the Entrance Hall of the Tower. Over her shoulder was a Christmas tree, the mother of all trees. It was huge. She dragged it up the stairs, up to the main room, spraying needles everywhere.
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In his dark laboratory, Cyborg added an attachment to his sonic cannon. CH-TUNG! Locked and loaded.
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Starfire pulled the top half of the tree through the doors to the main room, where it stuck. "EEK!" her arm was pulled almost out of the socket and she landed on her butt. She tugged but it was resolutely holding on to the door.
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Cyborg threw a belt of suspiciously grenade shaped objects over his shoulders. He got to his feet.
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Beast Boy saw, from the stairs, the huge tree stuck in the Main Room's doors. He grinned. He morphed into a rhino and charged up the rest of the stairs at the trapped Christmas Tree.
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Starfire pulled but no avail. Behind her Robin spat on his hands, rubbed them together and then gripped the Christmas tree as well. Raven sat by herself at a table, book held in one hand but her eyes were on the struggling pair and the Christmas tree.
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Cyborg charged up his cannon, strips of red light going down into the attachment . Fully charged and he stalked out of the room.
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I saw Starfire and Robin struggling and decided to go over and help. Just as I was about to grab the tree…
…Beast Boy charged across the short distance between the stairs and the stuck tree. Just as he was about to hit it…
…Raven's eyes suddenly went white, she said "Azarath Metrion Zinthos." Black telekinesis encased the tree, and began to pull…
…Beast Boy's eyes widened as he saw the tree become encased in Raven's magic and slide quickly out of the doorway…
… Starfire, Robin and I all let go and watched as the tree slid out of the doorway quickly, we turned back to the door as we heard a sudden stampeding…
…SMASH! Beast Boy crashed into the three Titans sending all four up into the air. He morphed back to elf mid-air and they all crashed to the ground together.
"Strike." Raven chuckled, hiding her smile behind a dainty hand. Us four Titans on the floor shook our heads, trying to work out exactly what had happened. This just made Raven laugh more.
Robin jumped to his feet and gentlemanly offered Starfire his hand, which she took and he pulled her to her feet. I put out my hand, for him to help me up… which he ignored.
I sighed and got to my feet. Raven used her magic to put the tree up in the corner. Then we walked over to our piles of presents. Beast Boy practically ran to them then morphed into a gorilla to carry them all. We all gathered around the tree putting our presents underneath. All five of us.
"Where is friend Cyborg?" asked Starfire.
He appeared in the door. "Right here." He wasn't smiling. Where his sonic cannon normally would have been he had a huge long gun. It was glowing a bright blue. He aimed the huge thing in our direction. "Boo-yah." He said quietly. The end of the weapon opened up glowing brightly. Our eyes widened.
And from the end of it shot huge snakes of tinsel, covering the tree from head to toe. His other hand pulled baubles from a belt over his chest, these he threw in a seemingly endless stream at the tree.
We moved out of the way so that Cyborg could have a better shot at the gigantic Christmas tree.
Eventually the glow faded from his cannon and he had to stop throwing baubles. He had run out of decorations. The attachment to the sonic cannon dropped off and he tossed the belt of his shoulders.
He pushed a button on his chest and a panel slid slowly open. Inside, something was glowing so brightly I couldn't see it. "Starfire, you want to do the honours?" He took the radiant object and gave it to Starfire who flew up to the top of the tree and placed the star at the top of the tree. She flew back down and joined the group staring at the tree in wonder.
"…" I was speechless, it was beautiful.
"Dude, that is so awesome."
"Glorious!"
"Nice."
"Good job, Cyborg."
"BOO-YAH!" he shouted and then added, "Now let's do the rest of the Tower!"
We all grabbed decorations and got to work.
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Pretty quickly the entire tower was done, even the outside had some decorations, thanks to those of us who could fly. Every room was decorated, and Beast Boy had forced us all to wear Christmas hats. Raven had found the one that said "Bah Humbug." Beast Boy called her Scrooge and hid it.
The weeks up to Christmas, as ever, passed remarkably quickly. Before we knew it, it was Christmas Eve, and time for the Titan's annual Winter Party. Public relations were important so the rich and famous were invited to a gathering in the Tower.
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As the noobie I got the job of standing outside and welcoming them into the Tower. Lucky me.
I was wearing a tuxedo, like everyone, but I had to wear my all-in-one Void suit underneath to hide my face. It looked…
Ridiculous.
At least Robin could just wear his eye-mask, I had to wear everything. Damn costumes.
The first limo rolled to a stop in front of me. The door opened and a white haired man walked out, with a lady on his arm. The mayor.
Possibly.
I went with a general, "Welcome to Titan's Tower, sir." He smirked, and then I noticed what I had presumed was a big necklace, but turned out to be the Mayor's chain…
Around the woman's neck.
Shit.
The mayor was a lady.
I turned to her, "Welcome to Titan's Tower, ma'am." And hoped to hell that she wouldn't say anything. Thankfully she just raised her eyebrows and walked past me.
A good start then.
Thankfully nothing more went particularly badly, and soon enough I was allowed upstairs into the main room and the party.
Everyone was in suits and ball gowns, even Cyborg had made the effort, squeezing his huge frame into a tux. Robin and Beast Boy were also wearing suits, I smirked. As difficult as it must have been for Cyborg to get the right sized suit, the same could be said for the small B.B. and Boy Wonder. Or not, but they are both quite small.
Starfire was resplendent in a purple dress, Robin was following her round like a lost puppy. Raven didn't seem to be anywhere.
After a little while I realised, this wasn't a party. It was just boring. I decided to go and get some fresh air.
The top of the Tower was dark and cold but not uncomfortably so. It was a place to go to think, or if living with five other teenagers became too much to handle, it was a place to rest.
Raven was sat, with her legs dangling over the side of the building. She had her usual robe on, with the hood up. She didn't seem to be meditating so I went and sat next to her. We sat in silence as we both looked out over the city. Little twinkling lights lined the streets, traffic drove around on the road, adding to the beauty when viewed here.
One of the nice things about being around Raven is the quiet. Most of the time she doesn't feel the need to say anything, it's not an awkward silence. Just a quiet.
Or not.
"I hate this party." She didn't even turn to me, she just said the words looking out over the city. "We hold it as if we need these people's permission to keep going."
I was quiet. If she wanted a response, I suspect she would have asked a question. We sat in silence again. Until-
There was a small light in the sky, getting bigger. I raised an eyebrow and went to speak but Raven brought a finger to her lips. The light seemed to be coming straight for the tower. She got up, gestured for me to follow and together we hid behind a vent on the far side of the roof.
As the light got closer, we could see it was some sort of hovercraft. After a few more seconds it got to the tower, turned sideways and landed. On the side of the craft was a big yellow H in a hexagon. "H.I.V.E." whispered Raven.
The side opened up and out hopped two H.I.V.E. guards in their yellow armour. They checked both ways before waving for someone inside the craft to come out. A giant of a man jumped out. He had ginger hair, something of a beard and huge rippling muscles. He wore a black outfit, like a spy, he also had a headset with a microphone.
Mammoth.
The two H.I.V.E. guards jumped back in the hovercraft, it lifted off and jetted out of the area. Mammoth made his way to the entrance to the tower, cracking just about all of the joints in his body as he made his way over.
Silently I flew behind him, brought my leg back and WHAM! Kicked him in the side of his face. I was quite pleased when he almost fell down clutching his head.
"Wrong party to gate crash, buddy," I said.
"I'll crash you!" he shouted a hilarious and cunning comeback, running forward.
I flew out of his reach smirking. "How're you gonna do that?"
"RAAAAAARRGH!" He ran forward again, jumped this time…
…and came this close to nearly hitting me as I flew back. As he fell back to the tower I gave him another kick, to the gut. This didn't actually seem to do anything, the packed muscle acted like armour to my blow.
"Heh heh heh! I don't need to stand around here fighting with you. I can just cause havoc downstairs." He laughed and made his way back to the door.
I flew around him to hover in front of the door, arms outstretched in an effort to stop him going through.
He merely grabbed my body, which felt like a punch, and smacked me against the ground with a grunt.
Through the haze that was my eyesight I saw Raven appear behind Mammoth with a Chimney stack or something in her telekinetic grip. SMASH! It crashed into the beasts back. He rocked forward, let go of me and turned to face Raven.
He swung a fist at her. At the last second she blocked with a shield of obsidian.
This fight was not going to go well for us, although we might have the advantage normally, because Mammoth didn't have to beat the crap out of us to complete his objective. Presumably, he just had to ruin the party downstairs.
Raven glided away from Mammoth, already choosing something else to throw at the H.I.V.E. student. But there was very little up here on the rooftop.
I got to my feet just as Mammoth turned back towards the door. "Annoying insects!" he shouted as he swung another fist in my direction. I ducked under it and tried to punch him in the chest.
He caught my fist and threw me sideways off of the tower.
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Robin stood talking to the mayor. "Well, yes ma'am I believe strongly that the Titans save more money than they take up due to damage."
The mayor nodded and said something. Robin didn't catch this because he saw a tuxedoed Void falling past the window. "Umm… ex-excuse me please mayor." He walked calmly out of the Main Room door and then ran wildly up the stairs to the rooftop.
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As I screamed and the ground rushed up to meet me, I remembered I could fly. I righted myself in mid-air and flew back up to the roof. I increased my speed to maximum, so I was practically blurring up the side of the tower.
Mammoth obviously knew I could fly so he looked over the Tower to see what had happened.
CRACK! My fist collided with his skull.
He rose up about a metre into the air before I kicked him in the gut back to the ground of the tower. He slid a couple of metres before coming to a stop.
He got to his feet steadily. "Now we're talking!" he said, glad of a challenge.
I panted and faced off against the towering monster. As he ran towards me I wondered where Raven had got to. As he pulled his fist back to hit me in the face I dived out of the way. He turned and snarled "I thought you were gonna be a tough guy?"
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Raven teleported into the main room and looked about for the remaining Titans. She tried to grab each of them in turn, without actually telling them what the problem was. She didn't want any of the rich or famous to know about Mammoth on the roof.
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Robin ran the last few steps up to the roof and burst through the door. He was greeted by the sight of Mammoth trying to dig a whole in the roof.
With my head.
He reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and grabbed a birdarang. Robin is always prepared. He threw it, the projectile collided with Mammoth's head and bounced off.
"Heh heh heh!" Mammoth chuckled despite the pain he must have been feeling by now in his head. "Fresh meat!" With this he charged at Robin who got into a crouch and, from some concealed pocket, whipped out a bo-staff.
He rolled under Mammoth's fist, whacked him in the ribs, back and then head in quick succession. As Mammoth turned to face him again, the Boy Wonder used the staff hit the backs of Mammoth's knees, sending him to the ground. He then kicked the villain in the chest knocking him backwards.
Again, Mammoth laughed. "Finally, someone who'll FIGHT me, instead of poncing around flying!"
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Raven had got Cyborg and Starfire to understand, but Beast Boy was reluctant to go anywhere. He was having talks with a director about a future film career. Eventually Cyborg just grabbed the changeling by the arms and lifted him up.
The four Titans went out onto the staircase.
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Robin was doing wonders out on the rooftop, evading each of Mammoth's blows, and returning the odd one. But for each of the punches Mammoth threw he was getting closer to hitting the Boy Wonder, it was only a matter of time.
Finally Robin couldn't dodge anymore, and he had to block with his rod. Mammoth hit it with such force that the weapon broke in two and Robin flew a few feet back from the impact.
He patted his pockets, but he knew that he had no other weapons. Mammoth, realising this grinned and charged forward. He punched, but Robin back-flipped away, he punched with his left and Robin back-flipped again. They repeated this again and again all the way across the Tower's roof before Robin ran out of room and had to stop.
There was nowhere for him to run. He was trapped on the ledge.
Raven chose that moment to teleport through the roof with the other Titans. "It's over Mammoth." She said.
He just grinned a manic smile and said. "Too late!" before he knocked Robin off the edge of the tower.
Starfire flew past them all over the Tower's edge with a shout of "Robin!" before she disappeared.
Cyborg levelled his sonic cannon at Mammoth.
Mammoth pressed a button on his headset.
"Say night-night." Said Cyborg just before he fired his sonic cannon.
A piece of tinsel shot out, made it halfway towards Mammoth before it gave up and fell to the floor. The Titans prat-falled.
The H.I.V.E. hover craft arrived behind Mammoth, silent.
"Nighty-night, Titans!" shouted Mammoth, laughing at his …intelligence… and before anyone could stop him he had jumped aboard the craft and jetted away.
Starfire came back up onto the roof holding Robin in her arms. I stumbled to my feet.
The rich people downstairs? They were unaware of the danger they were very nearly in.
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In the H.I.V.E. Hovercraft an agent asked Mammoth, "Was the mission a success?"
"Yup!" He grinned and gave a thumbs up.
The agent turned to the other occupant of the hold, "What about you?"
"You bet, those snot-faced fart-bags won't know what happened!" Gizmo sat back with his arms behind his head.
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The rich and famous went back to their mansions, once again impressed with the hospitality of the Titans.
The Titans tidied up and went to bed.
In the morning, on Christmas Day, Starfire and Beast Boy were outside the Main Room, restless with excitement. The Titan's had made an agreement that on Christmas Day nobody would go into the main room until everyone was gathered outside. To ensure this, Cyborg had fitted a special lock on the door, that would only open when all Titans had put in their codes.
This ended up with Starfire and Beast Boy up hours before anyone else.
Waiting. Waiting.
I came up the stairs, inputted my code into the door. Cyborg next, then Robin.
We all waited for Raven. She teleported up through the floor and inputted her code into the door.
"Duuuuude, what took you so long?"
"Never the mind Beast Boy! Let us open the presents, afforded to us by San T Claws!" Despite the other Titans insistence, Starfire fervently believed the Santa Claus existed.
And the Titan's Christmas began.